Anglo-Saxon Romsey
The Evidence in the Landscape
Routeways
Roman Roads
Two Roman roads have been identified in the area of the Hampshire Basin between the Itchen and the Test, one from Winchester to the Roman fort of Clausentum at Bitterne and the other heading from Winchester to a crossing of the Test at Nursling. The two roads diverged at Otterbourne. A section of the Bitterne road appears in the North Stoneham charter of 932 where the boundary runs suth andlang streate, south along the street, up Otterbourne Hill. The Chilcomb boundary of 909 heads in the opposite direction up andlang weges, up along the way. These are the only references in the charters for this area of any part of a Roman road remaining in use. South of Otterbourne Hill, the line of the Bitterne road has been lost to view; housing has destroyed any traces that might have been detected by LiDAR. The road to Nursling ran southwest from Otterbourne and crossed Monk’s Brook east of Chandler’s Ford railway station. The Chilcomb boundary crossed the ford, calling it searnaegles ford. The landmark leading up to the ford wasn't a streat, but a haga, a hedge. The Nursling Roman road is not mentioned as a routeway in the charters. The line of the road was traced by OGS Crawford as far as Home Covert east of Nursling, and sections of it are visible in the LiDAR.
The Roman roads heading towards Nursling and Bitterne diverge in Otterbourne, top arrow. The Nursling road has been seen in the garden of Otterbourne House and continues southwest along the line of the later road. The Bitterne road is visible in the LiDAR as it climbs Otterbourne Hill. The surveyors of the first edition OS map projected its line southwards to Boyatt Farm, pink arrows.
The Roman road from Winchester bifurcates after crossing the Otter Bourne stream. The road heading towards a crossing of the Test at Nursling was visible to the surveyors of the 3rd edition OS map at the east side of Otterbourne Hill Common, left arrow. The road to Bitterne continued on the same alignment towards Otterbourne Hill. The right arrow points to a possible quarry adjacent to the road in Dell Copse. The geology here is London Clay.
The Roman road to Bitterne took advantage of the natural topography as it climbed Otterbourne Hill and continued through Otterbourne Park Wood. The 3D maps combine the 3rd edition OS map with a Google satellite image and modern surface water.
Looking for Roman roads. Mary Harris and Jane Powell, armed with her collection of National Library of Scotland maps and houseprices.io LiDAR images tracing the Roman roads through the landscape.
Otterbourne Hill woodland. The Roman road to Bitterne is somewhere down the slope.
DTM LiDAR map of Otterbourne Hill by Jane Powell. The yellow arrows point to the Roman road to Bitterne. The National Library of Scotland Maps website provides two types of LiDAR data - Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) which has been processed to remove buildings and vegetation. A DTM image shows the features that are hiding in the woodland, easier to see on the LiDAR than they are on the ground.
A footpath is shown on the map heading southwest from the edge of Boyatt Wood and joining a short road east of Woodside House, yellow arrows. This footpath is on the same alignment as the projected Bitterne road, pink arrow, but offset to the east. It probably ran alongside the Bitterne road. In the North Stoneham charter of 932 the boundary ran south along the maeranbroce, the boundary brook - referred to in the Chilcomb charter as the Swaythling and now called Monk’s Brook, to Wergith’s ford at Northend. It then headed east towards Eastlea and then north swase haga scyt, turning a right angle to run along the haga. Here the boundary is heading north across a broad river terrace. The haga, meaning either a hedge or a bank and hedge, is likely to be the Bitterne Roman road, overgrown and out of use by the early 10th century.
LiDAR with modern surface water. Yellow arrows point to the fords on Monk's Brook at Chandler’s Ford and downstream at Wergith’s ford, both landmarks on the North Stoneham charter boundary. The yellow line marks the footpath aligned on the Bitterne Roman road. The North Stoneham boundary, proceeding clockwise, passed to the west of Otterbourne Hill, eventually turning south along the Roman road then east to the Itchen at Highbridge, green arrows.
The course of the Roman road running from Winchester to a crossing of the Test at Nursling was shown on the 3rd edition OS map. The red arrows point to the Roman road. Modern roads have been added to the map - the minor roads in brown show the location of the housing estates that now dominate the landscape. The road that crosses Monk's Brook runs to the north of the Roman road.
A section of the Roman road to Nursling has been preserved within the housing estates in Valley Park, Eastleigh. Information stored along with the iPhone photo pinpoints the location where the photo was taken and links it to a map of the area. The road crossed Monk's Brook near Chandler's Ford railway station heading southwest, the direction of the view in the photo. The surviving 230m of the road is a Scheduled Monument - there is more information about the road on the Historic England website. A small excavation was carried out in 1982 when the area was developed. A short note on the results was published by the Hampshire Field Club in 1986.
The surveyors of the 3rd edition OS map, in the early 20th century, mapped a section of the Nursling road southwest of Titlark Farm. Quarrying for a brick works had destroyed the road near the farm. The image combines the OS map with a Google satellite view and modern surface water.
The map combines modern surface water with the superficial geology of the Test valley at Nursling. Brown represents the alluvium of the Test floodplain and grey the river terraces. Nursling was a logical choice for a crossing point of the Test, at the narrowest width of the floodplain. The Roman road crossed from the spur of river terrace on the east side, near the location of the later Nursling mill. The water channels would have been very different in the Roman period. The main channel of the Test was shifted to the east side of the floodplain by the Anglo-Saxons to provide water for the Saxon mill (see the Economy - Water Management page). The arrow points to the earlier Test channel referred to in the Romsey charter as the Old Test. This river channel, flowing along the Test floodplain, is labelled on maps as the Blackwater up to the point where it meets the Test. When the Roman crossing was constructed the Blackwater would have joined the Test as a tributary further north. The road would have crossed one river, not two.
Jane Powell has traced the route of the Roman road from Winchester to Nursling and onwards to Stoney Cross, following in the footsteps of OGS Crawford and JP Williams-Freeman. She has used publicly available resources for her research including the National Library of Scotland Maps website and the Digital Surface Model (DSM) LiDAR on houseprices.io.
The research is presented on the Roman Road 422 page.
Saxon Routeways
Charter boundary clauses include features that indicate the locations of the contemporary routeways. Three fords are mentioned as crossing points along Monk’s Brook. The Chilcomb boundary of 909 followed the line of the Roman road to searnaegles ford. The 10th century road would have forded the brook slightly upstream. The 932 North Stoneham boundary approached the brook from the west along thaet slaede tha scit to maeranbroce; a slade is a small valley, in this case possibly the cutting for the Roman road where it climbed the higher ground west of Monk’s Brook. The boundary ran downstream oth hit cymth to waergitheforda, Wergith’s ford at Northend. The start and end point of the boundary circuit was Swaethelingforda, the ford across the Swaetheling brook. The village of Swaythling is located near the ford where the herepath from Mansbridge crossed the brook. The word herepath, literally an army path, was used for a main road or highway.
This 3D map combines the 1826 North Baddesley estate map with an outline version of the 1588 map of the Hursley estate. 'The waye frome Southampton to Winchester' crosses Monk's Brook. The boundary of Hursley shown on the map coincides with the Chilcomb boundary described in 909 - following the haga, the Roman road, to the ford then continuing north along the stream, then known as the Swaythling.
Monk's Brook, named as the Swaythling in 909 and the boundary brook in 932, flowing through Chandler's Ford.
Ampfield was part of the Hursley estate when it was mapped in 1588. One of the earliest AngloSaxon artefacts in the area was found by a metal detectorist in 1980 at Sandpit Copse, arrowed on the map. The Ampfield brooch is a keystone garnet disc brooch, Avent’s Class 3.1, dated to the second half of the 6th to the early 7th century. It almost certainly came from a grave. The find site is on high ground overlooking the valley of Monk’s Brook and on the brook’s watershed. In this period burials were often placed on boundarys. Monk’s Brook formed part of the Chilcomb boundary and was referred to as the boundary brook further downstream in the North Stoneham charter. It is possible that the brook was an early Saxon territorial boundary.
The Ampfield keystone garnet disc brooch is on display in the Winchester City Museum. When it was discovered the central boss was missing. The brooch was stolen from the museum and later recovered in its current condition, with the bossed setting added to the brooch.
Further Information:
Hampshire Field Club Journal, Vol. 42 - a note on the discovery of the brooch.
The Ampfield brooch and a Saxon brooch from Chilcomb are described in an article by the Hampshire Cultural Trust.
The only herepaths in the area between the Itchen and the Test are referred to in the North Stoneham charter. The boundary heads south down the Itchen from Highbridge. At some point it leaves the river and continues south until it meets the herepath that runs to Mannesbrycge, Mansbridge - right arrow. It follows the herepath back to the start of the boundary perambulation at Swayling ford. From here it headed west along the herepath, later known as Burgess Street and now Burgess Road.
The North Stoneham boundary followed along the Burgess Street herepath from Swaythling, right arrow, and then crossed the north side of Southampton Common. It continued north along another herepath, left arrow, towards Chilworth.
Southampton Common on the 1st edition OS map with modern surface water. Saxon charters of the 10th and 11th centuries record the estates bordering the common - Millbrook to the west, North Stoneham to the north and South Stoneham to the east.